Facebook Live Audio, Apple Announcements, and Facebook Photo Album Updates

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media.

On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show with Erik Fisher and Kim Reynolds, we explore Facebook Live Audio with Joel Comm, Apple announcements with Jeff Sieh, Facebook Photo Album updates, and other breaking social media marketing news of the week!

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If you’re new to the show, click on the green “Watch replay” button below and sign in or register to watch our latest episode from Friday, June 9, 2017.

For this week’s top stories, you’ll find timestamps below that allow you to fast-forward in the replay above.

Facebook Rolls Out Live Audio to More Broadcasters: Facebook began testing Live Audio with select partners including the BBC World Service, LBC, and HarperCollins in December 2016. It appears that Facebook is rolling out this new broadcasting format to more publishers and individuals. (4:19)

Facebook is rolling out Live Audio to more publishers and individuals.

Facebook Adds Closed Captions to Facebook Live Broadcasts: In an effort to help people who are deaf or hard of hearing experience live videos, Facebook now allows publishers to include closed captions in their Facebook Live broadcasts. Facebook provides a how-to guide on enabling closed captions on Facebook Live broadcasts. (11:30)

Facebook now allows publishers to include closed captions in their Facebook Live broadcasts.

Facebook Adds Notification Options for Live Video: Facebook now allows broadcasters to “send notifications” to their friends and followers when they share a live video. (15:28)

Facebook now allows broadcasters to send notifications to their friends and followers when they share a live video.

Apple Introduces Native Editing and Effects Tools to Live Photos: TechCrunch reports that “Apple’s Live Photos feature is becoming more powerful in iOS 11 with the introduction of a series of new editing tools and effects.” With the upcoming software update, users will be able to trim and select thumbnails and apply a variety of effects like loops, long exposures, and other ways to make their Live Photos more “fun and engaging.” (20:18)

Live Photos get an upgrade in iOS 11 with new effects, editing tools https://t.co/gPSk4sbJ3k #WWDC17 pic.twitter.com/mRMFyCRAQY

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) June 6, 2017

Apple Debuts Business Chat: Apple introduced Business Chat, “a powerful new way for businesses to connect with customers directly from within iMessage.” According to the Apple Developer site, customers can use this new feature to “find your business and start conversations from Safari, Maps, Spotlight, and Siri.” The Verge reports that “there will be built-in features like Apple Pay and calendar integration, which will allow Business Chat to facilitate purchases without requiring the user to exit the chat.” (24:26)

Apple introduced Business Chat, a powerful new way for businesses to connect with customers within iMessage.

Apple Camera Will Natively Support QR Codes With iOS 11 Update: Apple announced that the native camera app will be able to scan QR codes by default, “no extra software necessary,” with the upcoming iOS 11 update. (27:15)

Apple Introduces the New HomePod Speaker: Apple unveiled the new HomePod, “a powerful speaker that sounds amazing, adapts to wherever it’s playing, and together with Apple Music, gives you effortless access to one of the world’s largest music catalogs. All controlled through natural voice interaction with Siri.” (30:20)

Apple unveils a new HomePod speaker, controlled through natural voice interaction with Siri.

Facebook Updates Photo Albums With Ability to Share, Collaborate, and More: Facebook rolled out several new updates to its Photo Album feature. These include the ability to add videos, check-ins, text posts, and more to photo albums, follow friends’ albums so you’re notified when they’ve been updated, and showcase featured albums on profiles. Facebook also made it easier for friends and family to collaborate on photo albums. These new features are currently available on Android and the web and are “coming soon” to iOS.

Facebook Just Made It Easier to Share, Collaborate On and Feature Photo Albums: https://t.co/czcSSVwo0d #facebook pic.twitter.com/TiAe3CFCs8

— Social Pro Daily (@SocialProDaily) June 1, 2017

Instagram Rolls Out Two New Face Filters in Camera: The Instagram Camera rolled out two new face filters that “give [users] more ways to turn an ordinary selfie into something fun and entertaining.” These new face filters work with Boomerang, Rewind, and other Instagram video formats. These images and videos can also be sent to friends through Instagram Direct or added to a story.

The Instagram Camera rolled out two new face filters that can be used on all Instagram photo and video products.

Facebook Expands Custom Photo Frames to Select Pages: Facebook extended the ability to create custom camera frames to select event administrators. Facebook confirmed that it’s making the frames available to events hosted by pages with more than 10,000 followers and plans to expand them to smaller pages “in the next few weeks.”

Skype Introduces Highlights, Support for GIFs, and More: Skype debuted new features and a “fresh design” to its service worldwide. These include Highlights, which offers “a highlight reel of your day with photos and videos, so you can share everyday moments;” add-ins and bots for group conversations; support for GIFs, stickers, and Mojis; a new “Find” panel; and more. Skype is gradually rolling out these changes to Android-powered mobile devices and then to desktop “over the coming weeks.” These will be followed by the new version for iPhone. Meanwhile, versions for Windows and Mac will be released “over the next few months.”

Vimeo Rolls Out Three New Video Interaction Tools: Vimeo released three new video interaction tools including updated end screens for Vimeo Plus, PRO, and Business members and mobile-friendly cards and email capture forms exclusively for Vimeo Business members.

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Pinterest Adds New Features to Ads Manager: Pinterest rolled out several new features to Ads Manager the week of May 29. These updates include graph customizability, which allows marketers to track how two variables such as total impressions and spend trend over time; new reporting views; targeting breakdowns for ad groups; in-line editing; and archiving. Anyone with a Pinterest business account can try the most up-to-date Ads Manager features now.

Pinterest rolled out several new features to Ads Manager the week of May 29th.

Facebook Rolls Out New Templates for Canvas Ads and Extends Format to Collections: Facebook launched three new templates “that make it easier” to create Canvas ads for key business objectives such as getting new customers, showcasing a business, and selling products. Facebook also announced that advertisers can now use a Canvas post as the main creative showpiece in a shoppable Collections ad.

Advertisers can now attach a Canvas ad that opens instantly when people click on a collection, or create a Canvas ad from scratch and attach it to the collection.

Periscope Integrates Facebook and Google Accounts: Periscope now allows users to connect their Facebook and Google accounts and locate other people they might know on the platform. Adweek reports that once an account is connected, it can be used to log into Periscope in the future and can choose to share to Facebook before going live. This new feature is currently available on iOS and on the web and is “coming soon” to Android.

LinkedIn Will No Longer Support the LinkedIn Groups API: LinkedIn recently announced that it will “no longer support the LinkedIn Groups API,” effective July 2017. All integration partners such as Hootsuite “will no longer be able to access content from, or share content to, a LinkedIn Group through external platforms.” According to Hootsuite, it will stop populating LinkedIn Groups streams with data and LinkedIn members will not be able to post or schedule messages to them after June 30. It is also no longer possible to add a LinkedIn group to the Hootsuite dashboard as of June 1, 2017.

YouTube Tightens Restrictions Around Video Monetization: YouTube announced new advertiser-friendly content guidelines, which take a tougher stance on “hateful content,” “inappropriate use of family entertainment characters,” and “incendiary and demeaning content.” YouTube also released a new Creator Academy course on creating content that appeals to “a broad range of advertisers.”

Snap Inc. Makes Spectacles Available in Europe: After debuting in the U.S. last year, Snap Inc.’s Spectacles are now available in Europe. Spectacles can be purchased on the Snap Inc. website or from a Snapbot vending machine. TechCrunch reports that “customers in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the U.K. can now buy a pair for €149.99 or £129.99.”

Snap Inc.’s Spectacles are now available for purchase in Europe.

Amazon Enables TV Provider or Streaming Service to Build Alexa-Powered Video Apps: Amazon introduced the new Video Skills API, which will allow developers to build Alexa skills for controlling video content from any TV provider or streaming service through an Echo or Alexa device. Examples of these skills include the ability to search for a TV show, play a movie or change a channel, and more.

Amazon enables any TV provider or streaming service to build Alexa-powered video apps with the new Video Skills API.

WhatsApp for iOS Gets Filters, Albums, and Reply Shortcuts: WhatsApp rolled out three new features to its iOS app. Users can now add one of five color filters to their photos, videos, or GIFs and “jazz up their imagery or correct for poor lighting” from within WhatsApp. WhatsApp will also group multiple images received at once into an album and present them in a tile layout and offer reply shortcuts that allow quick responses for “fast-moving group chats.”